OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
I've been at two publishing conferences in the last week and it's evident that myths and misconceptions abound when it comes to independent authors and self-publishing.
Book Machine's Publishing Now even had a debate on the motion “Self-publishing is devaluing publishing.” In a heated discussion afterwards, I could see that the definition of ‘indie' as it applies to authors is still misunderstood. Of course, when mainstream publishers like Penguin announce their own self-publishing arms, it can be difficult to know what the hell is going on!
This is further demonstrated in the leaked Hachette internal memo on the relevance of publishing companies where they equate self-publishing with just digital distribution, which we (hopefully) all know is only the final step in the process. Joe Konrath & Barry Eisler respond with their comments here which is worth a read.
Eisler defines self-publishing: ‘it means you keep the rights to your book and publish it yourself using distributor/retailers like Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, and Sony, typically retaining 70% of the cover price instead of the 17.5% offered by legacy publishers (for digital editions). This isn’t what “most people” mean when they say self-publishing; it’s what everybody means when they say self-publishing.
But it's true that to many people self-publishing means bad quality books with no editing published by one of the vanity presses and the main concern is that this crap is flooding the world and readers can't find quality in the mass of rubbish. I know these books do exist but I hope you agree that we can do a lot better than that these days. I also believe that readers are the new gatekeepers so sales online, reviews and rankings will ensure that the cream rises and bad stuff drops out of the picture.
The term ‘indie author' has been increasingly claimed by authors who want a new label, one that does justice to the work involved.
This is my take on the subject but please add your comments and thoughts as it is definitely a moving target and no doubt there will be continued debate on it. I do mean for this to be an inclusive definition and you may sit somewhere on the spectrum of indie or you may be traditionally published. People have different aims for their books and their writing careers and I respect your choices, I just wanted to add to the debate!
Indie author means truly independent
At its most basic, indie means there is no separate publisher involved. Many indies may have setup their own micro-press, so their books still have a publisher name that is not the author's name but the publisher is not one of the author services companies. The indie author most likely owns their own ISBNs. The indie pays the bills and is paid by the distributors e.g. Amazon/Smashwords directly. The only middleman is the distributor.
There has been a blurring of the line between indie author and indie publisher that seems to be mostly related to size and scope of the business. I am an indie publisher of my own books so it's basically the same thing as being an indie author, but there are small & midsize independent publishing houses who don't like the term indie being used for people like me. However, there are increasing numbers of micro-businesses being set up by authors who also publish other author's books so these perhaps count as indie publishers.
Indies are entrepreneurs and business-people
The Creative Penn is a limited company. My books and this site as well as my speaking are a business. I have an accountant and I do monthly accounts. I monitor cash-flow, income and expenses. Indie authors may not all have such a developed business but they treat their writing and publishing in a business-like manner. That means they have to think about financials but also sales & marketing as well as production on top of the creative side. They basically act like a small press and can be defined as micro-entrepreneurs.
This entrepreneurial attitude also spills into why people go indie in the first place. We like speed and we like control. Taking action and seeing what works comes naturally, and jumping into new media, new technologies and opportunities is part of what we do. By the time I had written my first novel, I already had a platform so it was worth the experiment to publish immediately and see what happened. As the great entrepreneurs say, fail fast, fail often and then go with what works.
Indies employ professionals as publishing involves teamwork
I understand how the term self-publishing can be judged as a misnomer because we don't do it all ourselves. We have a team in the same way big publishers do.
One of the biggest criticisms of self-publishing is the poor quality of the finished product which is why it's important to take these extra steps.
As indies, we budget for and employ professional editors, professional designers and formatters for digital and print books. We know the value of our work includes the way it is perceived on the page as well as the work itself. I have always used an editor but I am definitely guilty of doing a lot more myself with my earlier books (which at some point I will re-publish). No more. The charge of bad quality is one we can avoid by investing in a collaborative process.
Indies are still interested in ‘traditional' book deals
There is a vocal camp that have now sworn off traditional publishing forever but I think most indies are still interested in a publishing deal, if it offers something they can't do or don't want to do themselves.
Most indies don't hate mainstream publishing either, despite the noisy few who make it look like we do.
In actual fact, we are all book lovers and advocates of reading in whatever form people want to consume. We all want the publishing industry to thrive and for readers to continue to buy lots of books and in fact, most authors are also huge consumers of books. Many of the big earning indie authors have been picked up by traditional publishing in some form. Amanda Hocking is the most famous with her St Martin's Press deal of over $2 million. John Locke took a print distribution deal with Simon & Schuster. Joe Konrath & Barry Eisler signed with Amazon Encore for some of their books which isn't one of the Big 6 right now, but may soon be. Their secret contracts are rumored to be much better for authors than other publishers but it's still not purely indie anymore, although many of these authors still continue to do their own work for other books. The hybrid model where some books are traditionally published and others are indie published seem to be growing and is perhaps the sweet spot for the most successful authors. It's certainly where I would like to get to myself.
What does indie mean to you? Do you identify as an indie?
Top Image: istockphoto.com & other one is my own edits on Prophecy
Fracturing and internal differentiation are marks of any growing movement. This debate in itself speaks volumes.
Cheers to that.
The first thing I think of is independent film makers who go outside the studio to make films, sometimes under very limited circumstances and money. They focus on making the film good, market it, and even submit it for awards. No one criticizes the films because they weren’t made by a big studio.
Yet, I mention indie, and another writer sneeringly says, “No, you’re not indie, you’re self-published,” as if he were trying to put me in the place he thinks I should be in. There’s a huge different between someone dashing off a book and throwing it up and someone taking the time to figure out how to market it and what will help sell in the best.
Let’s try to ignore the nay-sayers and prove our worth by producing a quality product that sells 🙂
I couldn’t agree more with Joanna…and just to prove her point (and not to brag, well…not too much anyway):
After leaving the Dark Side of traditional publishing, I went the independent author route with my books, publishing them through my own publishing company. My first book was the Winner of the 2011 Global eBook Award for Christian Non-Fiction; my second book was the Runner-Up of the 2011 Global eBook Award for the Performing Arts and is a Finalist for the 2012 International Book Awards for Performing Arts/Music; my third book is a Finalist for the 2012 Global eBook Awards and a Finalist for the 2012 International Book Awards. I didn’t enter my fourth book into any contests.
When I updated the covers with the graphic of the award stickers, I noticed a marked increase in sales–especially eBook (mostly Kindle) sales. The covers with the award graphics have helped to build my platform for my speaking engagements and workshops on job/career strategies, and increased requests for my classical guitar appearances.
Focus on developing a quality product and ignore the catcalls from people on the sidelines..
I enjoyed your article and the comments that followed. Myself, I’m not an Indie yet, but I am learning the process of self-publishing. Like many of the commenters, I have recently published two fiction books myself on amazon kindle. The fact I’m published and have gotten a couple of good ratings is exciting. To me it’s not about the $$$, as it is telling a good story people would enjoy. In time, the money will come.
I have read works from authors and poets back as far as William Blake and Robert Burns. Some of the pieces I thought needed lots of work, others were very well crafted. As a writer myself, I find that not everyone has the same audience based on their work, but it still is their work none the less. Though we may not like the style of some “authors” who need help, they did spend many hours if not years drafting the work they published. I read once There are those who write for publication, and those who write because they enjoy it and have a story to tell. Let them tell it and allow the readers to decide if it was good enough.
Loved everyone’s comments, they were all great!
Paul.
As an independent author/publisher (I publish only my own books that support my speaking, training, consulting platform), I’m finding that Kindle versions of my books are outselling the softcover versions by about 5:1. The exception: when I speak or do training sessions at conferences, association meetings, corporations, and universities–still working on getting into the military environment. I always have anywhere from 100 to 300 books on hand for such events and if I sell directly, I sell at the cover price; if the sponsoring organization buys the books, I give them a 40 to 50% discount (depending on the size of the order).
Last week I learned that two of my books were Winners at the 2012 International Book Awards. “Confessions of a Hiring Manager Rev. 2.0: Getting to and Staying at the Top of the Hiring Manager’s Short List in a Confused Economy” took First Place in the Business/Careers category and is a finalist in the 2012 Global eBook Awards (winners announced later).
The other book, “Instrumental Influences: Reflections on the Classical Guitar from the Instrument’s Most Influential Performers and Pedagogues” took First Place in the Performing Arts/Music category. This book was also Runner-Up in the 2011 Global eBook Awards.
Having your book covers adorned with the graphics/stickers announcing “Winner” really does help push sales (you have to push the marketing too to get the sales to move) and open up more consulting, speaking, and training opportunities when the book becomes “another brick in the wall” (and not the wall itself).
I have an indie publisher interested in my manuscript. I am not sure if this is a true indie publishing proposal because it sounds like they will cover much of the costs.
Hi Rick, Independent publishing means you have a budget and you spend the money upfront on editors, cover design etc and then you take 70% of the sales from Amazon etc. You manage the money. In traditional publishing, you get an advance and they cover the costs. Vanity publishers will ask you for money and charge a lot for the books. So just remember that indie means DIY with help from professionals.
My first book, Blessings in the Mire was published by Infinity Publishing, Inc. Since I am not the publisher, it’s difficult to say that I am “self-published” and as I was shopping publishing options for my next two books I again investigated Infinity as a possible choice. On their website, and in their handbook it says in bold itallics, “If you publish with Infinity, your book is not self-published.” Well then, what is it? Infinity isn’t an Indie Publisher. Are they a “POD”? It’s all so confusing. Now I am contemplating creating my own publishing company and really self-publishing my own stuff; I suppose that would make me an “Indie” publisher. It is such a rapidly changing (I struggle to say, evolving) publishing world. It used to be all we had to worry about was writing and editing. Now, even with traditional houses and with whatever Infinity is, we are in charge of so much more. It almost makes sense to take it all on ourselves, or at least stick with the past publisher and wonder what the difference is in PODs and Vanity. Or maybe I’ll stick them all on Amazon and buy a Kindle and get back to doing what I do best: Write them. Add now to the mix, the Espresso Book Machine, and I’m back to wondering about Print On Demand. Madness. It’s lightning-speed madness.
At any rate, I do appreciate your information here. Any comments are more than welcome.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the terminology Jan – just decide what your goals are as an author and then find the right options to achieve those goals.
Joanna, thanks for the response. I have about decided to create my own publishing house and really self-publish. I have many books completed, with some in the final editing stages, so it seems the next logical step is to simply become the publisher too. (Because clearly, things weren’t crazy mad enough so I need to add another heaping to my plate!) So I guess that will make me a self-published Indie publisher…. 😉
Thanks again. You do a wonderful service here.
Hello folks,
Very interesting to read the comments.
With my hand on my heart, I didn`t realise I was a ‘vanity publisher’.
I wrote my books with only one thing in mind – to preserve our social history.
I`ve written and released three books to date.
As a one-man operation (apart from the printing and binding)… I`ve found by self-publishing my works, that it`s a great way to get my books to the people that are potential buyers and getting paid first hand by such.
Hi Johnny, it sounds like you did it all yourself which doesn’t make you a vanity publisher in the negative sense at all 🙂 all the best with your books!
Thank you so much. I am a new indie author and your posts, updates and resources are invaluable!
I have just started using hour website and find it very encouraging and helpful, thank you :). As a complete novice (first novel in very early notes stage) and trying to get my head around the basics, self-publishing does sound pretty overwhelming and many people who have done it seem to have some experience in the book publishing world rather than none! I wondered if you have any views on whether this is the best route for first time authors?
Hi Claire, I’m glad you’re finding the site useful.
I had no experience in the publishing world and most self-publishers don’t so I’m not sure where you got that impression from 🙂
It can be overwhelming but start here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/resources/
and also check out the Alliance of Independent Authors which has a whole raft of resources to help you on the journey: http://allianceindependentauthors.org/a/88
Hi Joanna thanks so much that is really helpful 🙂
If you want to see some hard numbers I put together a comparison of the costs involved in self publishing comparing create space to Author House. It’s a real eye opener.
http://www.rschiver.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-amazon-ripping-off-writer.html
I agree with a lot of your points about what it means to be indie. I do both video games and writing as an indie developer and I am starting to see in both where bigger names adopt the indie title to try to exploit it to sell more. I’m also seeing big name developers sidestep publishers by going the route of crowdfunding, which was made for those who couldn’t get their projects done. Good example is Star Citizen (while I do support Chris Roberts, that money could have been used for those who need a boost to start).
I feel the question should be, when do you stop being indie? For writing, all of the costs come from your pocket, to get a professional cover design, quality editing, and ebook formatting…and that’s only if you can afford those things. But what if you get a company to market for you, does that draw the line from indie? How about if someone else distributes your book for you? We can establish where being an indie author starts, but where do you stop being an indie author?